February, 2011Clickthinking bought by international network
South African Internet and SEO agency Clickthinking was purchased by Aegis Media, one of the world’s leading media communications and market research groups, for an undisclosed amount.

February, 2011The green agency
We talked with the boys behind Derrick (Livio Tronchin, Mark Stead and Myles Hoppé), an agency that hopes to combine business sustainability with environmental friendliness, a collaborative approach to communication and media neutrality. We also got to squeeze Livio’s cock (a plastic rooster that crows, thankfully).

March 2011Renee Silverstone leaves Jupiter
Renee Silverstone resigned as CEO of The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg) after 22 years with the company. Silverstone had co-founded the company with Graham Warsop in 1989.

April 2011DDB/Draftfcb furore highlights industry confidentiality issues
A sparring match between Vodacom and Cell C upended the advertising industry and lead to heated debate on whether or not it’s possible for agencies to effectively protect confidential client information. A spoof campaign by Cell C, developed by DDB South Africa on a project basis (Ogilvy remains Cell C’s agency of record – see box below) and poking fun at Vodacom rebranding its corporate colour red, has, according to tech news site Techcentral, lead to Vodacom’s agency Draftfcb threatening legal action against the creative director behind both the Vodacom rebrand and the Cell C spoof campaign.

April 2011Quirk set to become a R100 million revenue companyMost popular read
The team at emarketing agency Quirk is so busy two years after moving into their offices they haven’t had time to finish off interiors properly. So busy in fact they have grown from 60 to 150 people in the past twelve months and will probably just fall short of doubling their R50 million in 2010 revenue over the next financial year.

May 2011Global agency groups find growth in digital, emerging markets
Financial results for the first quarter of 2011 from some of the world’s largest ad agency networks are showing rapid growth in emerging markets. Increasingly, agency networks expect their future, and future profits, to be tied in with markets outside the US or Western Europe. The stars of the show? China and Latin America. Digital spend, also in emerging markets, is driving quite a bit of the growth as well. Read more.

May 2011Dave Duarte joins Ogilvy promising the “geekification of the ad industry”
Ogilvy Cape Town made a tangible move towards integrating digital skills companywide and across traditional agency silos as ad spend continues its shift online. The agency has rolled out a comprehensive educational initiative with lecturer and digital strategist Dave Duarte, who joins the company to lead its Ogilvy Digital Marketing Academy (ODMA).Read more.

May 2011Brandt Botes plots a new design course
Designer and illustrator Brandt Botes has set up his own design studio called Studio Botes in Cape Town. The agency will specialise in corporate identity work, packaging design and illustration. Brandt is one of South Africa’s best known graphic designers and was until recently design group head at The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town).

August 2011TBWA, Zille deny Sunday Times tender scandal report
The Sunday Times published allegations that the office of Western Cape premier Helen Zille has awarded the province’s communication budget to agency TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris without following proper tender procedures. It values the contract at R1 billion over two years. The newspaper is basing the story on information supplied by an anonymous “whistle-blower.”

September 2011The Joe Public revival
Leck and Marais initially launched Joe Public in Cape Town off the ‘take-away’ advertising concept – clients picked and paid standard rates for services from a menu – and, while successful, Marais says it wasn’t sustainable over the long run as the agency grew. Joe Public was later bought by FCB which merged it and its ‘second-agency brand’ sibling Azaguys in 2004. It also closed the Cape Town office.

September 2011Matthew Bull, Andrew Whitehouse launch NY shop
Matthew Bull, former chief creative officer of Lowe & Partners (an Interpublic Group company) and founder of South African agency Lowe Bull, has teamed up with Andrew Whitehouse, executive creative director at FoxP2, to launch a New-York-based agency, The Bull-White House, which will be a sister agency to South Africa’s FoxP2.

September 2011Loerie time: Ad award success no longer sole arbiter of agency and industry respectMust read
The 2011 Loerie Awards are done and dusted (no pun intended), with Cape Town agencies grabbing three of the top five (first, third and fifth) spots on the official overall ranking table. Two of the three Grands Prix were awarded to Cape-based agencies. With the ceremony over, I for one cannot help but feel that the industry is shifting away from judging their peers based on award results. Read more.

November 2011Gloo eyes expansion to Middle East
Digital agency Gloo is seeing budgets dedicated to digital going up by as much as 50%, says Gloo ECD Pete Case, as corporate South Africa keeps shifting budget towards digital platforms. And it’s going towards more than marketing in its traditional sense, says Case, who cites Spur as one client investing in digital as a means to manage brand material going out to franchises. The agency announced Gloo it is seeking to expand beyond SA to the Middle East. It is already doing work in Doha for the Qatar Foundation.

December 2011Damon Stapleton on picking Saatchi & Saatchi Australia
Damon Stapleton, executive creative director at TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, announced that he is heading to Saatchi & Saatchi Australia to take up the role of ECD at that agency. This follows initial reports that he would be heading to London (additional job offers landed on his desk as soon as initial reports revealed he was preparing to leave TBWA).

December 2011Jupiter loses Woolworths
The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town) has confirmed that Woolworths, one of the largest advertising accounts in Cape Town, has given it notice that it is moving its account into an in-house studio. AIS/ADEX valued adspend from Woolworths at R104 million during 2010. Jupiter Cape Town held the account for five years.